The Cranmore Hill Climb

A classic New England mountain race

Published

November 1, 2007

New Hampshire’s Mount Cranmore has long been a sanctuary for adventure enthusiasts. Hikers, skiers, mountain bikers and trail runners have been challenged for years by the steep, winding and utterly devastating slopes of the historic 1,700-foot mountain.

On June 24, the best mountain runners in America flocked to the small hamlet of North Conway, NH, to tackle the Cranmore Hill Climb and one of the most “grueling, painful and killer courses” in New England. That description was according to seven-time U.S. Mountain Running Team member Dave Dunham, who, as a veteran of 18 Mount Washington Road Races, knows a thing or two about tough runing courses.

The 20th annual race, organized by the White Mountain Milers running club, also played host to this year’s U.S. Mountain Running Championships. All that stood between the 175 determined runners and four automatic berths (two per gender) on the U.S. Mountain Running Team was three arduous laps (two for women) up and down the face of Cranmore’s ski slopes, a total of 12.9 kilometers (8.6K for women) with 2,500 feet of elevation gain and loss per lap. No sweat, right?

If you’re new to mountain running, watch out for some steep hills, up and down,” warned race director Paul Kirsch, the man most runners would learn to hate by the end of the race. “They can be pretty tough.”

Kirsch’s understatement didn’t seem to ease the tension at the starting line. Nervous laughter was the only filler for the quiet Sunday morning. The birds even seemed as if they were lying low, almost as if they would have to run the race if they dared to chirp.

With Kirsch’s ominous advice in mind the runners were off in a hurry, taking a quick right-hand turn straight up Cranmore’s steepest slope. By the first kilometer, the assemblage of runners quickly split apart to a lead pack of about 10 elites followed at a distance by an increasingly thin line of stragglers.

As the top men and women began to make their way rapidly up the rocky, rutted trail it became obvious that they weren’t just battling the hilly terrain, they were battling each other. In fact, the race had attracted a mountain of competition that was almost as fierce as the course itself. Among the lead men were trail fiends Rickey Gates, Paul Low, Josh Ferenc, Ryan Paulding, Dave Mackey and Ben Nephew. The women’s field included the dominant Anna Pichrtova and venerable contenders Nicole Hunt, Anita Ortiz, Julie Bryan and Kelli Lusk.

The first full lap of the race went by the quickest, right at 20 minutes for the lead male pack, which was soon whittled down to just Gates and Low. With a two-minute lead after the first lap, they headed up for the second loop breathing hard and matching strides, knowing that two more identically bruising laps awaited them.

“Frankly (the first lap) burned me out,” said Gates, who tried to keep a one-stride advantage over Low. “I’m more of an uphill guy and the downhill was just brutal.”

The women’s pack was a bit more spread out as Pichrtova, a 2004 Olympic marathoner and 2006 European mountain running champion from the Czech Republic, got out to a quick start. Although she was still recovering from the previous week’s battle up Mount Washington — the 7.6-mile road climb that she won convincingly for the sixth time — she had a commanding lead over Ortiz at the end of the first lap.

Pichrtova didn’t appear to have many problems with the course. In fact, she liked it. “It was good,” said Pichrtova, a four-time winner of the famed Mount Kinabalu Climbathon in Malaysia. “I enjoyed the race, and it was very nice weather.” Few runners shared her sunny outlook after crossing the finish line.

Pichrtova was the first elite athlete to cross the line, dashing to the finish line while the men were midway through their third lap. She finished the 8.6K course in 46:45, followed by Ortiz a few minutes back in 49:05. (Because Pichrtova is not a U.S. runner, Ortiz won the U.S. Mountain Running title.) The next three women came in a bunch, with Christine Lundy (50:04), Hunt (52:49) and Lusk (53:05) filling out the rest of the top five.

The next two laps showed much of the same for the men as the runners began to find their positions. Gates and Low continued to battle, Gates increasing his lead on the uphill sections only to have Low come from behind as they headed back down. Somehow Gates hung on in the final downhill to win in 1:02:48.

“It was an unbelievable sprint-to-the-end finish,” said Richard Bolt, Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team leader and USATF liaison for the race. “Rickey crossed the line first and Paul stumbled to the finish just 10 seconds behind.”

The cheering crowd would have to wait a few minutes before Ferenc crashed down the slopes to finish third in 1:06:44, followed closely by Mackey (1:07:28) and Dmitry Drozdov (1:07:56) in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Ortiz, Lundy, Gates and Low earned spots on the Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team, which is set to compete in Switzerland this fall. (See story on other qualifiers in this month’s “At the Races.”)

“These guys just ran their hearts out today,” said Tom Mikkelsen, spokesman for INOV-8 trail running shoes. “You have to be insane to run a race like this, but these guys showed today that they have an insane amount of ability to match it. Guys like Gates and Low are starting to build a strong base for U.S. trail runners.”

One of the most impressive performances of the day was turned in by 16-year-old Zach Rivers, who won the junior men’s two-lap race in 46:51. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Claudia Severance won the junior women’s one-lap race in 32:36.

With a mess of bumps and bruises from downhill spills and even a handful of bloodied competitors, this year’s Cranmore Hill Climb couldn’t have been summed up better than the way Gates did at the awards ceremony. “I’m not sure if I have any muscles left,” he said. “I’m sure they’re there, I just can’t quite feel them yet.”

Despite the brutal course, many competitors were already looking forward to next year. The goal is never to conquer the mountain, only to survive it another year.

David Hunt is a freelance writer residing in the White Mountains. He punished himself in the three-lap men’s race and finished 13th in 1:15:15.